1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shield connector used for carrying out an electric connection operation between electronic devices mounted to, for example, a vehicle or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic devices are mounted to an automobile that is a vehicle. For this reason, the automobile is provided with a wire harness used to transmit a power or a control signal to the above-described electronic devices. The wire harness includes plural electric wires and connectors attached to the electric wires.
The electric wire is a so-called coating wire that includes a conductive core wire and a coating portion formed of a synthetic resin so as to coat the core wire. The connector includes a terminal metal part that is formed of conductive metal and a connector housing which accommodates the terminal metal part. The connector housing is formed of an insulating synthetic resin, and is fitted to connectors of the above-described electronic devices. In the above-described wire harness, the connectors are fitted to the connectors of the electronic devices so as to transmit a desired power or signal to the electronic devices.
In the above-described automobile, for example, a navigation device is mounted as an electronic device. The navigation device includes a body part that calculates a current position or the like and a display that displays a current position or a target position. The body part and the display are connected to each other via the above-described wire harness. Since the display is required to have higher resolution and to display the current position or the like in real time, a signal amount transmitted from the body part to the display tends to increase.
For this reason, a connector that is used to connect the body part to the display of the above-described navigation device needs to transmit a large amount of signal at a high speed. Thus, in the above-described connector, it is important to provide a countermeasure for noise which prevents the case where electric noise leaks to the outside from a terminal metal part for transmitting a large amount of signal or electric noise enters from the terminal metal part to another terminal metal part.
As the above-described countermeasure for noise, for example, a shield connector shown in FIGS. 9 to 11 is proposed by the present applicant. A shield connector 100 shown in FIGS. 9 to 11 includes plural terminal metal parts 101; a connector housing 102 which includes a terminal holder 103 formed of an insulating synthetic resin so as to hold the plural terminal metal parts 101, an inner housing 104, and the outer housing 105; and a shield shell 106 which is formed of conductive metal.
Each terminal metal part 101 is formed of conductive metal so as to have a bar shape. The terminal holder 103 is formed of an insulating synthetic resin, and includes a holder body 110 which is formed in a cubic shape and includes a terminal accommodation groove 111 for accommodating the terminal metal part 101; a cover 112 which is attached to the holder body 110 and covers an electric wire (not shown) connected to the terminal metal part 101.
The inner housing 104 is formed in a rectangular tube shape of which one end is blocked and the terminal holder 103 is inserted therethrough. The outer housing 105 is formed in a rectangular tube shape in which the inner housing 104 and the shield shell 106 are accommodated. The shield shell 106 includes an upper shield shell 113 and a lower shield shell 116 that are attached to each other so as to cover the outer periphery of the inner housing 104.
The upper shield shell 113 is formed by bending, for example, a metal plate or the like, and includes a body portion 114 which is formed in an angular gutter shape (having a U-shape in a sectional view) 114 and plural extension walls 115 which extend from one end of the body portion 114. The lower shield shell 116 is formed by bending, for example, a metal plate or the like, and includes a body portion 117 which is formed in an angular gutter shape (having a U-shape in a sectional view) 117 and a cylindrical tube portion 118 which extends from one end of the body portion 117 and allows the electric wire connected to the terminal metal part 101 to pass therethrough.
The shield connector 100 having the above-described configuration is assembled as below. First, the terminal metal part 101 attached with the electric wire is accommodated in the terminal accommodation groove 111 so as to be attached to the holder body 110, and the cover is attached to the holder body 110, thereby holding the terminal metal part 101 in the terminal holder 103. Subsequently, the terminal holder 103 holding the terminal metal part 101 is inserted into the inner housing 104.
In addition, in the state where the upper shield shell 113 and the lower shield shell 116 are attached to each other so as to cover the outer periphery of the inner housing 104, the shield shell 106 is attached to the inner housing 104, and the inner housing 104 and the shield shell 106 are accommodated in the outer housing 105. In this manner, the shield connector 100 is assembled, and is fitted to an opposite connector (not shown).
In the shield connector 100 assembled as described above, electric noise leaking to the outside from the terminal metal part 101 and electric noise entering from the outside to the terminal metal part 101 are shielded by the shield shell 106.
However, in the above-described shield connector 100, when the upper shield shell 113 and the lower shield shell 116 of the shield shell 106 are attached to the inner housing 104, as shown in FIG. 11, the terminal holder 103 may come off from the inner housing 104, thereby causing a problem in that the shield connector 100 is erroneously assembled.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a shield connector capable of preventing occurrence of an erroneous assembling operation.